


You Are My Song

by inkandwords



Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Character Study, Fluff, M/M, atsu fics, happy birthday beebee!, piano!levi
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-09-13
Updated: 2015-09-13
Packaged: 2018-04-20 13:23:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,003
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4788782
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/inkandwords/pseuds/inkandwords
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When Levi Ackerman meets Eren Jaeger, it’s like a note he’s discovered for the first time. Jarring. Disconcerting. But sweeter than anything he’s ever experienced.</p>
            </blockquote>





	You Are My Song

**Author's Note:**

> Partly inspired by _[You Are My Song](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d1D6o7R6zxs)_ by Martin Nievera and written for a very late, very belated birthday gift for [drawverylittle](http://drawverylittle.tumblr.com). Have some piano!Levi and semi-fluffy EreRis ajlkfigaojljf. 
> 
> **HAPPY BIRTHDAY, BEEBEE!! ♡♡♡**
> 
> -H

When Levi Ackerman meets Eren Jaeger, it’s like a note he’s discovered for the first time. Jarring. Disconcerting. But sweeter than anything he’s ever experienced. 

“You play well,” Eren had said before depositing some money into the tip jar of the local jazz bar Levi plays to pay his “struggling artist” bills. 

Levi had noticed Eren’s fingers first, long and weathered, too worn for someone so young. They had been filthy, dirt and paint streaking tanned skin, embedded under otherwise neat fingernails. 

_Disgusting_ , Levi had thought, though he hears a note in his head to capture the strong set of Eren’s knuckles, the callused texture of his palm grazing Levi’s when Eren insisted on shaking his hand.

He only nods when Eren offers him a smile before taking his seat again, unable to bring himself to tell him,  _it’s because you’re here and the song plays for you._

Each time he sees him after that first encounter, a new note marks the time, makes him remember it, commit it to memory to use for later when he’s sitting in front of his secondhand piano trying to recreate the experience. 

It’s in the third visit that Levi musters up the courage to ask Eren to stay after all the patrons have left. He hears a distinct note to mark the milestone and reminds himself that staring is not a form of flirtation, no matter what his instincts tell him. 

“What?” he asks when it’s Eren who is unable to keep his gaze away, all wide-eyed awe and emerald intensity, while Levi’s fingers dance across lovingly worn ivory. 

“Nothing,” Eren says at first, but changes his mind and thus, “the song seems to be trying to tell me something, but I can’t put my finger on it. It’s strange. I’ve never had that happen to me before.”

“Does it?” Levi asks, but he knows the truth even as he tries to stop it from happening.  _Stay and maybe you’ll find out_ , he wants to say. Instead, he continues playing, letting the music speak for him.

Eren is like thunderstorm, all rushing winds and brute force, whispering and roaring around Levi like an undeniable force. It sweeps him like a crescendo, a wave that surges forward to latch on before it drags him out to sea. 

He hears the sweet notes in the clear tone of Eren’s laughter, rising up to a peak before fading into a lulling melody. He adds notes here and there to remember the way Eren’s hands runs through his hair, wind-swept and breathless in a way that leaves Levi’s lungs craving for air.

“Do they always let you play after everyone leaves?” Eren asks during his seventh private performance. He’s sidled up next to Levi on the bench, watching him play with such attentiveness, such focus that it feels more intimate than anything Levi can remember. It wraps around the broken parts of himself he’s never mentioned, the parts of himself no one has ever been privileged to know.

Levi glances toward the bar where the night manager usually sits and is unsurprised to find Erwin there, having a drink as he, too, listens in. “Does it matter?”

“I don’t want to get you in trouble. You know,” Eren says, his grin sheepish and flushed cheeks visible even in the dim lighting, “because of me.”

When Levi turns back to Erwin again, he’s met with a raise of the man’s glass, as though urging him to continue. Levi’s mouth twitches, the barest hint of a smile. “I don’t think they mind.”

“I don’t either,” Eren says, his fingers ghosting over Levi’s as he repeats the ending notes of the last song. 

Levi’s heart stutters. 

Eren’s hands are still filthy by Levi’s standards, but the action cancels out that part of his brain, throws away his logic and need for cleanliness as another note sings in his head to term the gesture to memory.

As he begins another song, Eren’s eyes follow each extension of fingers, each reach for the next part of a story told through the tinkling sounds, melding together as the music tells of Levi’s life, his struggles, his dreams. Eren looks on as though he were experiencing it, his sad smile drinking it all in with such melancholy that it scorches Levi from the inside out, makes him relive it alongside a new friend instead of the solace he’s grown accustomed to. His music reacts to it, feels out the emotions, uses them. 

When Eren comes in again, the eleventh time Levi has asked him to stay, it’s like an old friend coming to drench his cold and weary bones with the warmth of nostalgia, of old memories Eren couldn’t have remembered, but feels all the same. By the time the last song ends, Eren is already there, tear-streaked face impossibly close, graduating from subtle touches to a kiss so explosive that Levi hears symphonies. 

“Stay with me tonight?” Levi murmurs in the aftermath, uncharacteristically impulsive, a desperation there he’s never allowed himself before. 

Eren’s surprise is noticeable, but the brightness in his eyes marks another note Levi stows away. When the boy nods his agreement, Levi releases a breath as Eren smiles like sunshine peaking from behind stormy clouds.

Later, in the comfort of his own bed, with Eren sleeping soundly next to him, Levi stares into the darkness, relives each moment through a song he’s composed. It’s made up of each sigh, each gasp, each stutter of his name. He weaves in sweeps of rough, working hands, gentle presses of callused fingertips, the passion of sweat-dampened skin clinging. The notes create a wave of memories written out through something that makes it personal, that makes it his. 

The first of many, he thinks, as his lids grow heavy and all he remembers are the warmth of arms holding tight like an anchor and Eren’s slow, even breaths in his ear like the calm after a storm, reminding him that he never has to be alone again.

**Author's Note:**

> Find me on Tumblr @ [limitlessmonster](http://limitlessmonster.tumblr.com). :D


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